Book Discussion Day 4: I Don’t Have Enough Faith to be an Atheist by Norman L. Geisler and Frank Turek

Chapter 3: In the Beginning There Was a Great SURGE

SURGE

SURGE stands for

The

Second Law of Thermodynamics

Universe is Expanding

Radiation from the Big Bang

Great Galaxy Seeds

Einstein’s Theory of Relativity13

All of these aspects of the SURGE provide overwhelming evidence that science and scientists have proven beyond a reasonable doubt that the universe, everything that exists in the physical reality, had a beginning.

Real tangible evidence. Scientific evidence.

What the evidence points to is that time, space, matter and energy are all related. They all began at the same moment, at the beginning of the universe. Which means time, space, matter and energy did not exist before the universe began. There was not time, space, matter or energy before the universe began. None of the material reality existed before the universe started, and it started from a single point and has been expanding ever since that beginning.

The fundamental principle of science is called the Law of Causality.14 The law states that everything that had a beginning had a cause.

Since the universe had a beginning, what caused the universe to exist?

The simplest, best and easiest answer is God

The fact the universe had a beginning points to the existence of something beyond nature, or supernatural as the cause of the universe. Since there was nothing, no matter before the universe, there was no natural thing before the universe. Therefore anything existing before the universe or before time itself would exist beyond time, space and matter, and, by definition, be supernatural, transcending time and space.

Now for the heady part.

If there is no God, why is there something rather than nothing?15

Nobody has come up with a good answer. Not a single atheist. All attempts by atheists have been found poorly lacking in any scientific or logical validity, often both.

In summary, the chapter makes the case that the scientific evidence leaves us with only two possibilities16

No-one created something out of nothing

Someone created something out of nothing

If you can’t believe that nothing caused something, then you don’t have enough faith to be an atheist.

Discussion point

Here is the most scientific proof that I think there can be for the existence of God. How persuasive do you find this to be?

Why do people choose to doubt the existence of God after considering this evidence? What is their position based on? What are the reasons for them believing that there is no God? Are they sociological? Are they psychological? Are they religious? Are they philosophical? If they are philosophical what is the strength of their evidence? How do they answer the question if there is no God, why is there something rather than nothing?

There was one overriding facet of the scientific evidence proving the beginning of the universe. It was the precision with which the universe was created. There is such specific precision to the universe that it points to a supernatural creator.

On page 93 of the chapter the authors list 4 things about the First Cause that made the universe based on scientific evidence.

Self-existent, timeless, nonspatial and immaterial

Unimaginably powerful, to create the entire universe out of nothing

Supremely intelligent, to design an incredibly precise universe

Personal, in order to choose to convert nothingness into the time-space material universe

Since science identified these characteristics of the entity that existed before the universe, how would you compare it to our ideas about God?

13Geisler & Turek pages 76-84 I Don’t Have Enough Faith to be an Atheist.